Food intolerance: sifting the facts from the fantasies

Judy Buttriss explains away the media hype

By:
Judy Buttriss

Last year, a two page feature article in the Express newspaper carried the headline, “Are you allergic to bread?” The thrust of the article was that one in three people has an intolerance to wheat which causes anything from bloating to depression. Unfortunately, the headline was both alarmist and misleading. More unfortunately still, the article contained several scientifically meaningless statements, contradictions, and factual errors. There were statements suggesting that fermentation of foods in the gut is similar to “low grade poisoning,” and wheat is “very hard for our bodies to digest.”

The suggestion that wheat intolerance affects 35% of the population was a gross overestimate, and no scientific studies have shown the incidence to be anywhere near this high. The current estimate, based on a study conducted by the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food for the total prevalence of all food allergies (including peanuts) in the United Kingdom